The artificial intelligence MEGATHREAD

[Rivendale]

We also have Hinkley and Monson listening to Christine Carol Robinson Burton (Hinkely's niece) pleading for help with her parents abuse and they told her to let it go.

That's a tough story to hear. It shows that the Brethren are not infallible. They struggle with mortality and human imperfections as much as the next person. When the scriptures say that God calls upon the weak things of the world to accomplish His work He's not kidding around.

We ought to take Him at His word.

Carol Burton went through some terribly rough things that were very difficult to wrap her mind around. As did her two siblings apparently. My hope is that she is in a place where she has found peace and is able to live the remainder of her life not experiencing PTSD every day.

Whatever you might think about the church, one thing I think we can agree on, and that is it is a laboratory of experience in which a wide range of actors and those that are acted upon are thrown together in a way by which some folks experience the 'school' (church life) without a whole lot of hard knocks and others are not so fortunate. But there is an education, nonetheless. I would hope that at matriculation there is a loving and understanding Dean of Education that hands out diplomas fairly and with a great deal of compassion and understanding for what many folks go through in the school of hard knocks.

Regards,
MG

I don't reconcile this as fallible men. I recognize it as a orchestrated meticulous indoctrination that places the church above everything including family. Currently Elder Gong asked his own gay son not to post pictures of them eating dinner together. Is that a fallible man again. Your own kid? What is the use of the dogma if every mistake is glossed over by fallability? It is indistinguishable from people imagining things.

[Marcus]

...[W]hen someone selectively values A.I. input based on whether it aligns with their own views, it undercuts any claim to open-mindedness or intellectual consistency...

Which the gymnast openly admitted he does...

...But again, I repeat, when I use A.I. I go over the response to see that I agree with what its saying essentially...

Good call, malkie.

[Morley]

Which is why I'm pointing it out, my friend. I join the chorus of many others here. You would have a much greater impact and come much closer to realizing your goal of advocating for the Church if you stopped smearing your feces on the wall. You're doing the religion (the one that you say you love) no favors with your present approach.

I would respectfully respond to your comment by saying that "the chorus" you refer to is of one mind and heart with a common refrain. My voice is discordant and does not blend well with this group of vocalists. To those here that sing a certain melody in harmony, a discordant voice is anathema.

I can understand your point of view (if I was a critic I would approach things similarly to you), it's just that I think you are wrong. My voice, even if discordant, is on key and in tune with the truth...in my opinion. I will continue to stand up for what I see to be light and truth even though others in this 'chorus' of anti-Mormons and critics may see/hear it in a way quite similar to that which you describe.

Regards,
MG

My god. Read what I'm typing. It's not what you're saying. It's how you're going about it. The chorus to which I'm referring is castigating your (MG's) methods not your message.

I think it's good to have diverse voices. Moreover, I think that you, MG 2.0, could serve a vital role in defending the church on this board, if you would stop being so self-righteously dickish.

You could be an effective voice in defending the Church--if you would pick your battles and post thoughtful replies of your own words. You could acknowledge mistakes occasionally, recognize when others have made a point, and post in a spirit of good will.

You were a teacher. You know that in some classes, in some years, your students require a different approach from you. To effectively teach, it does no good to blame society, or trends in parenting, or the Common Core. You adapt to the situation to get your message across, and growth in your students. You'd do well to do the same when you're out of the classroom.

But, hey, please ignore my advice. Run afoul of the moderators. Get your threads split off for not being on topic. Post walls of A.I. generated text that no one reads. Break the rules about including your prompts. Keep up your practice of avoiding posting in good faith. You apparently think that this strategy makes you sound brilliant and appeals to lurkers. You also apparently think you're that scoring points somehow by acting this way.

I will say it again. This a critique of your methods, not your message. If you're not communicating your message, it may not always be because everyone here is stupid or nasty or doesn't believe in a creator God. It might be that your method is flawed.

[Dr. Sunstoned]

I don't believe A.I. is to the point of being fully reliable. Generative A.I. systems can "hallucinate," meaning they produce incorrect or nonsensical information, even when presented with accurate data. I see this with my students' work all the time, especially with citations. For some reason, citations are often incorrect.

[Moksha]

My daughter explained to me what prompt meant in this regard: Like MG says, "Say something about Mormonism and make it sound like it is oh so true", and Proximity will string together a bunch of sentences. Hopefully, this might help those technically unequipped like me.

[I Have Questions]

Currently Elder Gong asked his own gay son not to post pictures of them eating dinner together.

Surely that’s not true?

[Rivendale]

Currently Elder Gong asked his own gay son not to post pictures of them eating dinner together.

Surely that’s not true?

https://newordermormon.net/viewtopic.php?t=6060 Yes it was.

[Dr. Shades]

Dear Participants:

TL;DR: After a great deal of thought, I have decided that all instances of copies-and-pastes from artificial intelligence text generators such as chatGPT, Perplexity A.I., Sage, and any others should all be contained within a single thread in each forum. This will be retroactive for each post so reported. (Stop reading here if you wish.)

LONG-WINDED: Although one user here has said that "more information is better than less information," the fact remains that "relevant information is better than irrelevant information" and "high-quality information is better than low-quality information." Although I can hardly believe I need to type this next part--and it's a testament to how far technology has advanced in just the almost-20 years this board has existed--for our purposes here on this message board, "Discuss Mormonism" should be assumed to mean "humans discuss Mormonism," not "repository of computer-generated texts regarding Mormonism-related topics."

Yes, I fully understand that artificial intelligence is a tool, just like any other. So, why the seemingly unfair bias against it on my part, as one or more users are certainly assuming as they read this? It's because, like any other tool, it can be misused. And, in my reasoned opinion, it has been misused here far, far more often than it has been used legitimately.

To wit, it has been used as a substitute for human thought and analysis. Instead of being employed to rapidly gather information from a variety of sources, it has been used to do one's typing for one. A time-saver, nothing more. Instead of articulating why they believe as they do and why others should be persuaded thereby, users have been typing their opinion into prompts and having the A.I. auto-generate their reasoning for them. The resulting text does not qualify as "information;" it's simply a computer algorithmically spitting out words it thinks (heh) the inputter wants to hear. The net effect is that although the prompter gets to play with a shiny new toy that saves oh-so-much time, no other reader is edified thereby, knowing the gig (ruse?) in advance. You know, similar to how a member of an uncontacted tribe will certainly be fascinated by the oracular, near-godlike power of a Magic 8-ball to divine the future and reveal hidden knowledge, while those of us in modern Western society will fail to actually learn anything from the 8-ball, knowing how it really works (or doesn't, in actuality).

So, does this mean we can't use A.I.? No, 'cause I can hardly stop you. But for posting purposes, A.I. should only be used as an advanced google search, nothing more. A search that gives you all your results in one place, rather than a list of individual links you must click on, uh, individually and visually scan in order to locate the facts you want.*

THEREFORE, TO MAKE THIS NEW POLICY WORK, do not copy-and-paste any computer-generated reasoning, opinions, or conversation from Perplexity A.I., etc. into any thread other than this one. Keep anything you generate in any of those programs in a separate browser window, ne'er the twain shall meet.

*(For example, an A.I. generated answer to a prompt that says "Please show me the text of Alma 20:18" would be fine to post here, because the result would be raw data and nothing more. But, like I said, any computer-generated reasoning, opinions, or conversation are prohibited.)

[Chap]

Dear Participants:

TL;DR: After a great deal of thought, I have decided that all instances of copies-and-pastes from artificial intelligence text generators such as chatGPT, Perplexity A.I., Sage, and any others should all be contained within a single thread in each forum. This will be retroactive for each post so reported. (Stop reading here if you wish.)

[...]

I read it all, and I would like to thank you for taking this very necessary step. Use of A.I. is not banned, of course, just its abuse to generate walls of text as a substitute for human communication.

[I Have Questions]

THEREFORE, TO MAKE THIS NEW POLICY WORK, do not copy-and-paste any computer-generated reasoning, opinions, or conversation from Perplexity A.I., etc. into any thread other than this one. Keep anything you generate in any of those programs in a separate browser window, ne'er the twain shall meet.

Amen!

Although you may need to explain this in simpler, blunter, and more forcible language for one specific poster…